Strategic Perspectives Foundation
A better understanding of strategy allows us to make informed policy
August 15, 2020, marked the 74th Independence Day for India. For a civilisational nation with a 5000-year history, 73 years marks just a blip in time. The year 2020; annus horribilis has unique challenges, the ritualistic celebration of Independence, gives a semblance of normality in challenging and difficult times. A global pandemic, disrupted economy and … Read moreCelebrating Independence 2020 Under Digital Slavery!!!
Surgical strikes a fashionable phrase that has entered Indian public discourse has interesting origins. The Collins English dictionary defines it as ‘a military action designed to destroy a particular target without harming other people or damaging other buildings near it‘. The term was first used during the first Gulf War. The use of precision guided missiles to take out military targets avoiding civilian casualties. It … Read moreOF Fashionable Discourses And Simplistic Narratives
The Rule Of The Road by Alfred George Gardiner is easily one of the most delightful essays I have read during my teens. Gardiner captures the essence of our social contract in the following paragraph that has resonated in my mind over decades. ‘I shall not permit any authority to say that my child must … Read moreA Need For A Civil Discourse
The national narrative of the modern Indian republic has been a mixed bag mostly. On one hand is my childhood memory of watching Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi an epic historical drama of India’s freedom struggle in my home town of Thiruvananthapuram in the early eighties. The mood in the theatre was sombre and a heavy sense of tragedy and … Read moreURI – Using Bollywood For Building A Bold New Narrative
The Chinese Communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong famously coined this phrase “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” This phrase is a limited explanation in the framework of the origins of political power as espoused by Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao was already the undisputed leader of the Communist revolution and the Peoples Liberation Army, an … Read morePower Flows From The Smartphones